NWT MLAs pass $436M capital budget for 2026-27

Northwest Territories MLAs have passed a $436-million capital budget for 2026-27 – which controls spending on infrastructure projects – by 12 votes to four.

Cabinet’s seven MLAs were joined by regular MLAs Danny McNeely, Denny Rodgers, Julian Morse, Kate Reid and Shauna Morgan to secure the budget’s passing.

Richard Edjericon, Robert Hawkins, Kieron Testart and Jane Weyallon Armstrong opposed it.

The capital budget governs spending on major projects related to the likes of housing, healthcare, energy and transportation, as well as some more routine replacement and maintenance work.

It isn’t the same as the GNWT’s annual operating budget of more than $2 billion a year, which is generally voted on each spring.

Finance minister Caroline Wawzonek said the capital budget for the year ahead includes:

• “tens of millions of dollars” to maintain and build schools in all communities;
• $50.4 million for Housing NWT;
• money to build the new Dehk’e Frank Channel bridge;
• various highway upgrades;
• $17.8 million for the Territorial Fire Centre in Fort Smith;
• planning and engagement work on big projects like the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, Mackenzie Valley Highway and Taltson hydro expansion; and
• renewable energy projects like a hydro line from the Taltson plant to Fort Providence and Kakisa.

Through negotiations with regular MLAs, Wawonek said other items added to the capital budget include:

• $2 million for backup diesel generators at schools in Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic;
• $420,000 to complete “overdue school facility assessments” in Yellowknife and elsewhere;
• expediting the NWT’s proposed new Mineral Administration and Registry System, known as Mars, and associated online map staking; and
• a commitment to renovate Ndılǫ’s school in 2027-28.

After advocacy from Monfwi MLA Armstrong, Wawzonek said the GNWT will also work on “a better policy-based approach to support housing clients dealing with historical arrears from legacy homeownership.”

“I am proud of the balanced and forward-looking capital plan we’ve developed. I am proud of the changes that we’ve made as a group,” Wawzonek told the legislature as the budget came to a vote late last week.

Supporting the budget, Great Slave MLA Reid said there were other “incredibly important” items on the list like 9-1-1 upgrades, a new patrol facility for officers monitoring the caribou harvest on the winter road to the mines, and healthcare upgrades in small communities.

The $50.4 million for housing is part of a $150-million commitment the GNWT made earlier this year. Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Rodgers said this was “not enough but certainly it’s a start.”

Sahtu MLA McNeely noted much of the budget rests on “outside support … because of the simple fact that we can’t raise anything, we don’t manufacture anything.”

Much of the cash the NWT spends comes from federal transfer payments. In this case, $161 million of the $436 million came from a separate series of federal infrastructure programs.

“In today’s financial position, yes, we’ve got to make compromises,” McNeely said.

‘Nothing’s ever changing’

Armstrong opposed the capital budget on the grounds that she did not believe it reflected the urgency of the Tłı̨chǫ region’s housing crisis.

“Families are living in conditions that no one in this country should have to live in,” she said.

“With the closure of nearby diamond mines approaching, it is expected that many Tłı̨chǫ citizens will return to their home communities, placing even greater demand on already limited housing resources.

“From my perspective, I see that Yellowknife and the larger regional communities continue to be the haves and the smaller communities are the have-nots”

Testart, Hawkins and Edjericon, who together sought to launch an independent members’ caucus, have opposed the GNWT’s last operating budget and each of its past two capital budgets.

“I’ve got a huge list here of needs from my community and it’s not even being looked at,” said Edjericon, the Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA.

Morgan, the Yellowknife North MLA who supported the budget, said she disliked debating the capital budget as it “seems to have the effect of dividing us into separate communities and regions, all vying with each other to get a greater share of a limited pot.”

Morgan said the bulk of capital spending goes not to Yellowknife or any one community, but to the likes of highways and power infrastructure.

Hawkins, the Yellowknife Centre MLA, said he was opposing the capital budget because the GNWT had declined his request for the Avens seniors’ group to be refunded around $400,000 spent during the 2023 wildfire evacuation. The territory said the claim was on top of a million-dollar claim already approved and paid to Avens, and featured ineligible costs in the form of extra incentives to work regular shifts.

“If I had heard that we were going to straighten out the Avens problem in some manner, I’d be behind this budget,” said Hawkins.

Testart, the Range Lake MLA, said the GNWT’s housing commitments were not ambitious enough, promises to expedite the Mars system came with too little detail, and the overall fiscal approach of the territorial government remained unclear to him.

“There reaches a point where we’re always working together and nothing’s ever changing, and the people who entrusted us to be here don’t see the accountability they expect us to bring with the job,” he said.

“That’s why it’s important to be able to vote against things that you don’t feel go far enough or address the moment that we’re in – the biggest challenges we face.”

Three MLAs did not vote. They were speaker and Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson, who by convention would not do so unless in the event of a tie, alongside Dehcho MLA Sheryl Yakeleya and Mackenzie Delta MLA George Nerysoo, who were not marked as present in the legislative record of proceedings.